Canonical’s Four Most Critical Ubuntu Partners

Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu Linux, continues to build its channel partner program. Although the effort isn't generating headlines yet, solutions providers can measure Canonical's progress by keeping their eyes on four key Ubuntu partners. Here they are.

First up are two household names: Amazon.com and Dell.

Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu Linux, continues to build its channel partner program. Although the effort isn’t generating headlines yet, solutions providers can measure Canonical’s progress by keeping their eyes on four key Ubuntu partners. Here they are.

First up are two household names: Amazon.com and Dell.

1. Amazon.com: Ubuntu 9.10, scheduled for an October 2009 arrival, will push far deeper into cloud computing. But in the meantime, Amazon and Canonical are quick to note that Ubuntu Server Edition for Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) is available now.

Canonical’s cloud computing push gives Ubuntu a back door into the server market, where traditional pre-load deals with Dell, Hewlett-Packard and IBM can be tricky to develop (although Canonical and HP recently certified Ubuntu 9.04 on selected HP ProLiant servers).

2. Dell: Sure, niche PC suppliers like System76 and ZaReason deserve major applause for shipping quality Ubuntu systems. But Dell’s decision to offer Ubuntu on selected desktops and laptops in mid-2007 was a tipping point for Canonical’s move into mainstream computing.

Is Dell a perfect Ubuntu partner? Certainly not. International readers often complain to The VAR Guy that Dell Ubuntu systems are not available in their countries.

Also, Dell typically waits considerable time before pre-loading the most current Ubuntu release on its systems. As of June 22 2009, Dell was still shipping Ubuntu 8.04 (released in April 2008) rather than Ubuntu 9.04 (April 2009 debut). The reason: Dell likes to test, test, test Ubuntu.

Still, Dell is a big name — and a big reason why Ubuntu has gained momentum with thousands of consumers and small businesses, The VAR Guy believes. Our resident blogger is visiting Dell on June 26 and will seek an update on Dell’s Ubuntu strategy.

Not by coincidence, Canonical knows it needs to train thousands of folks in order to accelerate Ubuntu’s momentum in the IT channel and within businesses. A case in point: Red Hat has trained nearly 40,000 IT pros on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. And many of those pros will converge on the Red Hat Summit in Chicago this September 2009.

Meanwhile, Canonical needs to walk before it can run in the IT channel. That’s where new training initiatives, launched in May 2009, enter the picture. Fast Lane’s Alumbaugh says he and Bridge Education representatives are on the phone regularly with Billy Cina, Canonical’s training programmes manager. Their discussions focus on further accelerating Ubuntu training.

You can bet The VAR Guy is trying to listen in.

Regardless, Bridge Education and Fast Lane could emerge as two of Canonical’s most important channel partners going forward.

Jef: Hmmm. You’ve got The VAR Guy on that one. Rightscale has been a great partner with Canonical. Let’s see what other companies readers mention … and we’ll see if our resident blogger can post a follow-up.

Yes training is absolutely important for adoption.They need to put resources into here.

I wish Dell would release in more countries. Microsoft seems to have OEM’s wrapped around their finger. I am sure that Dell’s Ubuntu offering could be done alot better but business deals with others constrict this. Zareazon does ship to Australia though.

@Jens: Unlike Novell, Canonical has never signed any deals with Microsoft.
As for Mono being a show stopper stopper in the future, that’s just your opinion. If we listened to all the FUD that’s being spread about patents, we would have stopped using the Linux kernel by now.

Jens, Good point but Microsoft is not a Canonical partner. I’m sure they would jump at the chance so long as they could define the terms–maybe something like the MS partnership with Novell SuSe along with the restrictions, patents agreements, and all??
On the other hand Microsoft has done much to help Canonical succeed with Ubuntu without being a Canonical partner. …Just carrying on with business as usual seems to be doing the trick. They couldn’t be doing a better job at making Ubuntu look good. Just try to get through a Vista system install and you’ll understand. 🙂

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